Earlier today, Btstamp, the second largest bitcoin exchange, suspended operations, citing a security lapse, as reported by CNBC. These kinds of inciidents do not build confidence in the currency or the underlying tech platforms. In fact, one source in the artiicle suggests that a liquidity problem could be the reason and not a hacker.

The price of bitcoin has dropped to $250 from the mid-$300s, and was $ 269 today.

Venture capitailist Mark Andreeson went on a 26 tweet tirade defending the crypto currency. What do you think is causing the price volatiity if the mining and blockchain process is secure?

The real value, the real power of bitcoin is not as an investment for some wall street types, but rather as a medium of exchange that can serve as a stateless currency outside the grasping, maniuplating paws of politicians and bankers.

All it needs is to be used. There is really no excuse for any business not to be on board.

Bitcoin has gained value, were a year ago Bitcoin was this new weird thingy and today Microsoft, Dell and Overstock all take Bitcoins. It's all about the Public Ledger called the BlockChian that's were the real value is and as more JPMorgan and others start to play with Bitcoin the Value get's better and better.

It's not your daddy's coin to investment, It's a new age and it a little different but the same. Bitcoin IMHO has gained more value this year then the last 5 years. Yes going 6 years old and the world is talking about Bitcoins = value...

Without the right tools business cannot function in Bitcoin today. I am building a HD-BIP32 Bitcoin business wallet. Adding Multi-sig wallets adds a 2 signature digital check- were it need 2 out of 3 authorization to send any coins. All in an easy to use application. You can create 100 to 1,000 of Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dogecoins sub-wallets and add multi-sig and then we add organization, mangement and accounting off all the sub-wallets and all the coins.

Without finding the right business people, developers like myself cannot do it alone, business needs the right financial tools and with Bitcoins it NOT about the value of the coins but the real value is the Public Ledger called the BlockChain. Financial data is everything and this is were all the magic - OK math and crypto but magic sounds better.

You can NOT cheat math and crypto and the p2p network cannot be attacked the same ways so it safer and encrypted to boot. If you want to chat more my blog is uscyberlabs come on by and ask awya.

As more regulations are applied to bitcoin, I would expect that bitcoins will eventually be held in ETFs or some type of funds. We are seeing an ecosystem develop with bitcoin exchanges and market makers. This is still evolving and in its nascent stages. Private equity firms are backing many of the bitcoin business ventures. The IRS is applying long term and short term capital gains to bitcoin. [see a a bylined article by Kirk Phillips on our site, for more on this topic, soon to be posted]. We may be kidding around about bitcoins not being suitable for our 401ks. Yet we don't know what the future holds.

For the first nine months of the year, Bitcoin's price remained well above $400, but that's not counting a Bitcoin e-Flash Crash in August and a slump in July due to deposit freezes at Chinese exchanges, according to the site Coindesk.com

Bitcoin reached a low of $319 on Oct. 5 but began rebounding on Oct. 14, when the Coindesk BPI (Bitcoin Price Index) reached $398. But the recovery was rocky and short-lived.

In the past two days, bitcoin has been trading in a narrow range of $320 to $334. One site (Cryptocoinnews.com) is saying there will be little "overhead resistance" until $420. There are predictions that Bitcoin will double to $600 and based on Elliot Wave theory (technical analysis) could go to $1,200.

Clearly, bitcoin is volatile and is not an appropriate investment for one's 401k or 529 college savings plan.